


On Your Left, Darkness

by yunhaiiro



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Enemies to Friends? sort of? Let's say less-enemies, Gen, Reluctantly talking about feelings, not as dramatic as the title might imply, trapped in a cave
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-04 09:29:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15838476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yunhaiiro/pseuds/yunhaiiro
Summary: "Barnes, maybe you haven’t gotten it yet: I’m not going to spill out my true feelings on all topics you want my opinion on just because we got nothing better to do for who knows how long. Not here, not now, and definitely not with you.”A trek through the Wakandan mountainside is not Sam's idea of fun, and neither is having to keep up withtwosupersoldiers on the way up. What's worse? Trying to get inside a supposedly mystical Wakandan cave, only to find the entrance collapsing on them and being trapped inside withBucky, of all people. Who just won't stop asking questions as if they're going to come out of this as best buddies.(Bucky might actually be onto something).





	On Your Left, Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> I had to fix their MCU relationship _somehow_.
> 
> Thank you to my beta [dfotw](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dfotw), also for the encouragement to post this <3

“Remind me again why we’re doing this.”

Steve turns his head to look at Sam, adjusting the straps of his backpack on his shoulders. He’s not even out of breath, the _asshole_. Sam exhales, pinching the front of his t-shirt and shaking it to let some air in, even as the Wakandan sun beats down mercilessly on them. Up ahead of the two of them, Bucky also turns around, holding a walking stick made out of a tree branch in his only hand, and answers before Steve can.

“Because T’Challa suggested it and we’re being nice to our host.”

“Why isn’t he here, then? Why are _you_?”

“He’s the _king_ ,” Bucky hisses. “He has better things to do than join us for a mountain climb.”

“And you obviously don’t.”

Bucky smirks with no joy.

“And I know my way around here. No offense, but I can’t be sure how good your sense of direction is when you don’t have a bird’s view of the terrain.”

Bucky turns back around and starts walking again. After Steve is done rolling his eyes at both of them, he follows him. Sam does the same, still grumbling.

“Why am _I_ here?” he asks aloud, to no one in particular.

Steve calls back to him, this time still looking ahead.

“I thought you liked the outdoors.”

“Dude, I go to parks to jog and that’s basically it. I’m a city guy.”

“Well, so are we.”

“Sure. You’re forgetting ‘super-soldiered’, though.”

“What? You can’t keep up?” Bucky says mockingly.

“I can,” Sam says, gritting his teeth. “I just don’t see the point of me being here. Why couldn’t Natasha come too? Or instead of me?”

Steve shrugs.

“You’ll have to ask her that.”

Sam scoffs in defeat. That would be an even worse situation to be in.

“I just don’t like being the third wheel.”

“A slower wheel.”

“Buck…” Steve warns.

Bucky shuts up. The rhythmic thump of his stick is all the sound they hear for a few minutes.

They finally arrive to a plateau with some trees and a bit of shade under them. Sam wordlessly plops down under one and gets a bottle of water out of his own backpack. He takes a sip, then grimaces at how hot it is. The other two are looking at him, still standing.

Sam puts the bottle back and looks up at them.

“You might as well sit down too. I’m not moving for a while.” He leans back against the tree and puts the visor of his baseball cap over his eyes. “But please do it under the shade. You’ll burn to a crisp.”

“I don’t think that can happen,” he hears Steve’s voice saying.

“Super-soldiers,” Sam mumbles under his breath.

“We’re pretty close already,” Bucky says. “If you want to get this over with quicker.”

Sam adjusts his cap up and looks at him through narrowed eyes.

“Is that so.”

“Ten minutes more, tops.”

“Alright”, Sam gets up and dusts off his pants. “Lead the way, _White Wolf_.”

“Where are we headed, exactly?” Steve asks, following Bucky as he starts walking.

“It’s a natural cave with a spring inside. Apparently there’s a special kind of moss growing there, which glows in the dark.”

“Apparently?” Sam inquires, already walking behind them again.

“I’ve never been inside, I’ve only seen the entrance. It’s… not a sacred place, exactly, but it has significance. I didn’t…” Bucky falls silent. “Guess they thought I’m worthy of seeing it only if I go with Captain America.” His smirk is as self-deprecating as his words.

“And me,” Sam adds. “They also think I’m worthy of seeing it.”

Bucky rolls his eyes, but Sam can’t see him doing it.

“I don’t think they would have invited you if they knew you would complain the whole way.”

Sam struggles to find a retort to that, but comes up with nothing. He settles for a childish, “Are we there yet?”

“Almost.”

 

* * *

 

They arrive at the entrance exactly ten minutes later, Sam checking it on his wristwatch, and for a second he’s almost impressed.

It’s a fairly unassuming entrance. It looks like a crack in the rock, mostly, and it seems too narrow for them to pass through at the same time.

“Guess we go in one at a time.”

“So we do,” confirms Bucky. “I’ll go in first. Steve, you should be the last one…”

Steve is eyeing the hole with distrust.

“Not really sure I’ll fit through there, Buck.”

“Yeah. That’s why.” He hands Steve the walking stick. “Wilson.”

“Yeah, I got it.” He passes in front of Steve and waits for Bucky to finish going through. Bucky has to enter sideways, robes rustling against the rock, and barely takes two steps before disappearing.

“There’s a bend to the left right at the start,” they hear from the inside, with a hint of echo. “Be careful.”

Sam leaves his backpack leaning against the rock next to the entrance, then follows. The stone pricks him uncomfortably in some places he rather they didn’t as he slowly weaves through, but manages to enter without much difficulty. Once he clears the bend, he steps inside the pitch black darkness until bumping into Bucky, who seems to jump in the air.

“Hey! Watch it!”

“You okay, guys?” Steve calls out from the outside.

“Yes, everything’s fine. Your turn.”

Sam’s eyes are slowly adapting to the darkness, not enough that he can actually _see_ , but enough that he can already tell how much wider the cave is in the part they are standing on.

They hear more rustling, then a muttered, “Fuck”.

“Steve?” Sam and Bucky say in unison.

“I’m…” Some more movement. “Yeah, I don’t think I’ll get through.”

“Can you at least go back?” Bucky asks, concern clear in his voice.

Steve hums non-commitally.

“I’ll try.”

They hear something moving slowly and deliberately, then a thud, then an, “Aha!”.

“You in?” Sam asks.

“No, but I think I’ll be able to get out. Just need to…”

Another thud. A rock, somehow separated from its kin, rolling. Two loud footsteps, presumably Steve going back. Then another rock rolling.

“Oh, shit.”

Sam feels something yanking his t-shirt from behind and he stumbles backwards, before feeling the gust of air a stone created falling right in front of his face. He now retreats by himself, until the thudding stops.

“Well, fuck,” Bucky says right next to his ear, making Sam almost jump out of his skin. “Steve? Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m fine,” they hear, distantly and muffled. “Are you?”

“We’re fine,” Sam answers for the both of them.

“Can you see how bad it is inside?”

Nope.

“No.”

“Okay, here it looks… bad. I don’t think I should try to remove the rocks by hand…”

“Please go find T’Challa,” Sam shouts.

“I will. Hang in there.”

The voice recedes completely.

They stay in silence for a while.

“Well, fuck,” Sam says too. The echo returns the swear at him.

 

* * *

 

“Since we’re gonna be here for a while,” Bucky starts, after being in silence a mind-numbing amount of time, “why do you hate me, exactly?”

“… I don’t hate you.”

Sam sounds tired, like he’s already had this conversation before. Bucky wonders with whom, since it definitely hasn’t been with him. He looks skeptically at Sam, but they can’t really see each other’s faces in the darkness anyway.

“Uh huh.”

“Believe what you want.”

“I don’t ‘believe’ anything. You told me as much. In the airport, in Berlin?”

Sam scoffs.

“If you can’t tell apart banter in a very stressful situation from a declaration of true feelings, that’s your problem.”

Bucky goes silent for a beat, but then keeps talking.

“Is this a stressful situation?”

“Well, you’re really trying to make it one,” Sam points out. “We could be chilling _in silence_ instead.”

“Steve complains about us not actually talking to each other and only bickering.”

“Steve would like all humans on Earth to hold hands and dance under a rainbow, but that’s not how reality works.”

Bucky makes a face and shifts against the rock on his back.

“Is that really what you think? About him?”

Now Sam’s the one silent for several seconds.

“No. But, Barnes, maybe you haven’t gotten it yet: I’m not going to spill out my true feelings on all topics you want my opinion on just because we got nothing better to do for who knows how long. Not here, not now, and definitely not with you.”

Bucky sighs.

“You’re very defensive.”

“Don’t try to pull any shrink crap. I know all about it.”

Bucky drops it, for now, and sits down carefully, back still to the wall. Holding one knee up to his chest, he rests his head on it.

He hears clothes rustling in the direction of Sam and shadows shifting, so he must be doing something similar.

“I did that too, you know,” Bucky says after a while. “Idolize him.”

“For fuck’s sake, Barnes.”

There’s another spot of silence that lasts some minutes.

“Why are you here, Sam?”

Sam can’t help but laugh out loud at that.

“I have been asking myself that for a while.”

“No, I mean…” Bucky gestures vaguely in the darkness. “Why did you do this? Nat hated her life. I didn’t have one. From what Steve told me, you were… fine. When he met you.”

“What has he told you, exactly?”

“That you were out of active duty and helping at the Veterans Office.”

“And he told you why I left active duty?”

“… some sort of accident.”

Sam scoffs.

“My partner was killed in combat.”

Bucky closes his eyes.

“I’m so sorry.”

“Right.”

“I… know what that’s like.”

“Yeah. So you can imagine why I left.”

“I do,” Bucky assures him. “I can’t imagine why you went back in, though.”

Sam, on his end, sighs and looks off into where he supposes the rock wall is.

“We’re both soldiers, Barnes. You know it’s hard to actually get out.”

  _Not like anyone gave me the option,_ Bucky thinks, but keeps it to himself.

“And I… I mean, it _was_ Captain America,” Sam adds. “I couldn’t leave the guy to get hunted down by those SHIELD traitors.”

“So it was your sense of duty.” Bucky sounds skeptical.

“No, that’s not…” Sam sighs in frustration. “Look. Would you have come back if any one other than Steve had asked?”

“That’s a very personal question.”

“Well, you started this whole thing, dude. If you want a heart-to-heart, you’re gonna have to give me something too.”

Bucky takes a moment before answering.

“… I don’t think so, no.”

“You would probably still be in that rundown building in Bucharest, hiding, right? Or anywhere else, but out and away from all this bullshit.”

Bucky feels like he has stepped into a trap of his own making.

“I guess.”

“Well, I’m not claiming I’ve been through half the shit you’ve been, but that just ain’t me. I went away for a while because it was… hard, to keep doing the Army thing. But I always knew I’d go back, in time. I figured Captain America banging on my back door was as good a signal as any.”

Bucky reflects on this for a bit, but before he can answer anything, Sam adds in a low voice:

“’Sides, I think Riley would’ve wanted me to do this.”

Silence falls over them once more, while Bucky puts all this new information in order in his head and Sam gets lost in memories.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Bucky says after a while.

“I did. I said I don’t hate you.”

“I don’t mean that one. I mean, the what do you really think about Steve one.”

Sam sighs tiredly.

“Is that relevant to anything?”

“It is to me.”

“Well, I do think he can be _too_ optimistic at times, and make rash decisions. I figured he needed a cynical asshole close to offset that and I thought that could be me, but now… I guess I realized you’ve been doing that for longer.”

That earns a chuckle out of Bucky.

“Didn’t use to be that way,” he says.

“Really?” asks Sam. “Because you seem like a natural killjoy to me.”

“I’m just old now.”

Sam also laughs.

“I _was_ like that with Riley, though, so if you ever need a rest from the grumpiness, I’ll take over in a flash.”

“Noted.”

“If we don’t die in here. Steve is taking his sweet time looking for help.”

“He is.” Bucky sounds worried. “I hope he doesn’t get lost.”

“He just had to go down the mountain. Knowing him, he might just jump off the first steep cliff he sees to get down faster.”

“Oh God, he really will,” Bucky says, worry giving way to alarm.

“… I was joking,” says Sam.

“I wasn’t.”

“Look,” Sam tries to sound reassuring, and Bucky can’t say that he likes it. “I’m sure he’ll be here with help soon, and we’ll get out, and then we can pretend all this never happened.”

“Can I ask you something else?” asks Bucky, instead of acknowledging the reassurance.

“About what?” Sam asks, suspicious.

“About Riley. You can say no.”

Sam lets out the longest sigh.

“Alright. If we actually pretend this didn’t happen afterwards, either.”

“What was he like?”

The silence that follows is the most ominous yet. Bucky is on the verge of apologizing and backing off for good this time, but Sam surprises him by speaking up.

“He was a lot like Steve, actually.”

It takes Bucky a second to understand the full implications of that simple phrase. Once he does, what he thought he knew about Sam shifts completely.

“… I get it.” There’s zero mockery in his voice, only almost a hundred years of sympathy.

This next silence isn’t confrontational or even awkward. It just feels like a mutual understanding.

Bucky looks up and sighs. Now he can see a bit more clearly inside the cave, enough that he won’t bump into the walls if he tries to move around.

“Do you think it’s worth a try to find the spring, since we’re here?”

“Yeah, no,” Sam says at once. “It’s probably a bad idea to get away from the entrance until Steve is back. Unless you two actually have a psychic connection and you’ll be able to tell when he’s here again.”

“I’m just saying, he’s taking an awful lot of time, and if there _is_ a spring, the water must come in from somewhere. It might be big enough to get out through.”

“Ugh, I hate that you’re making sense.”

Bucky sees (but mostly hears) Sam standing up and dusting his pants off once again. He gets up as well.

“If we get lost I’m eating you first,” Sam says.

Bucky starts walking towards him and the path down the cave.

“Pity I already have one arm less.”

“Still plenty of you to go around.”

Bucky goes past him, leading the way, and Sam follows close behind.

 

* * *

 

“… damn.”

They do find the spring.

They stand at the end of the narrow passage they came from, staring at the large opening ahead.

The cave dips down into several natural pools, water glittering as it reflects the preternatural glow of thousands of  vines that extend all over the rock, climbing up the walls and hanging over the concave ceiling, which could pass as something carved into shape by a team of architects, but still retained enough imperfections to be sure of its natural origin.

At the exact center of the dome, there’s an opening in the rock, where sunshine pours through and leaves a circle on the ground, like a circus spotlight. They both notice it at the same time.

“I also hate when you’re right.”

Bucky is still too busy looking around in awe to answer.

“They weren’t exaggerating when they told me of this place…”

Sam sighs and also looks up.

“It is… beautiful”, he says, the word not leaving his lips easily. “Eerie, too, but.”

Bucky jumps down into the cave proper, careful to land on solid ground and not water. Sam follows him a second later, protesting under his breath.

Bucky starts walking towards the center, still mindful of the sometimes slippery rock under his feet. He tells Sam as much, and he answers with a grunt.

They reach the center, and look up trying not to get blinded by the sunlight after so much time in darkness. Bucky manages better than Sam, because of course.

“That’s easily four yards. Maybe four and a half.”

“How are we gonna get up there?”

“I think we’ll need to climb up the vines, I don-”

“HEY?”

The shout makes them both jump out in surprise. Sam has a hand over his chest, like he just had a heart attack.

Bucky, though, looks up again and shouts back.

“Steve?!”

“Yes! Hold on!”

Sam looks at Bucky, who isn’t really looking at him.

“What are the fucking odds.”

A minute or so later, a rope ladder starts unfurling from the opening and down into Bucky’s hands. He holds it for a second, then steps to the side and gestures to Sam.

“You first. I’m heavier. You’ll reach the end faster.”

Sam doesn’t really think it twice.

“Alright,” he says, and he grabs the rope ladder and starts climbing. After he has gone up a prudent distance, Bucky follows.

They reach the surface, where they are greeted by four warriors with stern faces and a very worried Steve.

“Are you alright?” Steve says the second their feet leave the ladder, almost throwing himself at them as if to check if they are personally.

“Yeah,” Bucky offers as the sole answer.

“Bit dehydrated, but we’ll live,” Sam says for his part. “How come you came up here instead of, you know, where we were actually trapped?”

Steve looks guilty for a second.

“They told me this was the other entrance, and since the other one had caved in so easily… they figured it would be better to go the long but safer way.”

“Back up,” Sam interjects. “*Other* entrance? I thought the one we went through was the only one.”

“Actually… no one really uses that one anymore.” Steve glances at Bucky, looking guilty again. “So they told me.”

Sam is staring very hard at Bucky too.

“You don’t say.”

Bucky seems to be having a mild breakdown of his own, but snaps out of it fast.

“Look, that’s the only entrance I’ve ever seen.” Sam is still staring dubiously at him. “I told you they didn’t allow me inside! If no one tells me, how am I supposed to know?”

“I’m going to dropkick you back into the cave.”

Steve steps in the middle of them, mostly to call for their attention, but maybe a bit because he believes Sam might actually do it, too.

“I guess you didn’t bond over your cave adventure, then.”

“Keep that up and you’re going right after him, Cap,” Sam adds.

Bucky pipes up from behind Steve in a bored tone:

“Can we go home?”

“God, yeah,” Sam answers, and sidesteps around Steve to reach Bucky, and they both start walking side by side, followed by the warriors and, a beat later, by a somewhat confused Steve.

Later that day, after the sunset, when they’re finally back in the capital, and they’ve eaten, and drank, and are about to head to their cozy Wakandan beds, Sam catches up with Bucky before he disappears into his and Steve’s room.

“So. What we talked about in the cave.”

“I have no idea what you mean,” Bucky replies, deadpan.

Sam offers a complicit smile, but keeps talking.

“I appreciate that, really. But, you know, since we did talk about some heavy stuff…” He pauses. Bucky waits. “Well. I know we’re never going to be best buddies or anything. But I guess I have been kind of an asshole to you.”

Bucky agrees with a hum.

“Can’t blame you, though,” he offers. “You were suspicious, and with good reason.”

“Yeah, but I think we’re past that. I could try to…” Sam sighs. “I don’t know. Have a little more empathy towards you.”

Bucky smiles tiredly.

“Thought you said you were ‘done with the shrink bullshit’.”

“I am. I’m just trying to be nicer to you, jerkface.”

Bucky chuckles now.

“Since now I know some things about you too, I guess I could also be nicer to you in return.”

“I think that’s as good of a place to start as any.”

Sam offers Bucky his hand. Bucky shakes it with no hesitation.

“Goodnight, Barnes,” Sam says, before starting to walk away.

“Goodnight, Wilson.”

Bucky enters the room, where Steve looks up from where he’s sitting on the bed, a book in his hands. Steve smiles at him, the relief at seeing him again after even a minute out of his sight more noticeable than usual on his face.

“Hey,” he says, softly.

Bucky also smiles and closes the door behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are endlessly appreciated!


End file.
